Cotton-cleaning machine



July"29,' 1930. E. c. GWALTNEY 1,771,524

COTTON CLEANING MACHINE Original Filed July 9, 192"! yam,

VENTOR Patented July 29, 1930 UNITED STATES EUGENE C.- GWALTNEY, F LAURINIBURG, NORTH CARQLI-NA' COTTON-CLEANING MACHINE Application filed July 9, 1927, Serial No. 204,541. Renewed October 24,199)

My invention relates to an improvement in cotton cleaning machine.

In all preparatory cleaning machines now in use in the cotton manufacturing trade through which material passes before carding, the picker, which is usually a beater composed of two or more revolving knives, or

a cylinder covered with pins (or what is known asa porcupine beater), has either been placed horizontally or vertically to the length of the machine, the cotton passing entirely through one picker at a time, all cotton passing through the same element. This, to insure large production and low opcrating cost, has placed a tremendous capacity on the picker, greater in fact than the element can properly handle, resulting in the cleaning of cotton up to the card being done by detaching tufts or bunches of fibres rather than the individual fibres or very small masses. It is well known that the more finely the cotton fibres are subdivided in the process of cleaning, the cleaner the resultant cotton will be with less damage to fibres.

My new cleaning machine contemplates a plurality of pickers to a condenser. The work of each picker is reduced in proportion to the number of the elements appliedto each condenser, all of the cotton not passing through each element but only the proportionate part of the cotton to the number of elements. For instance, a four picker machine will handle only one-fourth of the total amount of cotton handledin this machine. By reducing the amount of work to be done by each picker, use can be made of the cleaning and parallelization action of the feed- 7 plate and licker-in, which has hitherto only been applied to cards and low grade cotton i cleaning machines of very low production as in the latter machines the licker-ins are set in series and not in parallel. The pickers in my new machine may be set either with the axis at right-angles to the screens and lapforming attachment, or may be set at an angle other than parallel, the opposite elements farthestfrom the machine may be placed very closely together, resulting in a modified V- shape, the open end of the V delivering to the screen element of the picker.

' In this new process ofcotton manufac ure; the use of cards, which has heretoforebeen regarded as necessary in the manufacture of cotton and other fibrous materials,fmay be entirely eliminated in the'manu'facture of combed yarns. y In my present invention,I secure a cleaner cotton, more evenly divided, with'less waste ofgood fibre, due to the use of a plurality of pickers over a single one as hitherto used, to a condenser,so that I obtain what might be termed individualfibre cleaning as compared with masscleaning as heretofore practiced. Thismachine consists of a lap-forming section which contains avscreen section to form a sheet of cotton by air suction which is delivered to a calendarr'oll section, com presses the sheet and winds the same in -the form of a lapof the proper width, density, and weight, to be put 11 at the ribbon lap machine toprepare laps ior combing or carding in connection with'pickers toconsist of two or more licker-in cylinders similar to those used on revolving flat cards, with feedplate and feed roller, the cleaning elements being placed other than horizontally or vertically, to the screen or calendar rolls.

The cotton delivered from the Ilicker-in is more nearly straightened and parallelized,

due to the combing action of the lickerdn Q than the cotton received from the card, due to the fact that it is impossible for the wire on the card cylinders and flatsto 'hold a fibre and carry it forward without the fibre being doubled backin more or lessjthe form of a loop or clo'sedV, the card action in no wise resembling that of combing, as in :combing one end of a fibre must be firmly held while theneedle's or teeth o'fthe combingileviceare passed through'the masso'f fibres. This c; tion is only obtained on the'licker-inbythe feed-roller holding the mass of fibres andthe licker in teeth passingthrough the same as they are gradual1y'fe%i forwardantiljtheflbre is finally released from the feed lei, g

This action is also present in heconiber .bfYf'thE ippers-whiil'e the needles of "the comber cylinder by reason oft-he fibres being the carding 20f fibres between two-revolving viz-Jae." ta-43.

by the use of the licker-in and feed-plate and the combing action attendant thereon while not delivering the fibre to the screen which forms the lap, by airsuction, in a perfectly parallel condition,does avoid the tendency of the card teeth to doubleup-and nip the fibre, and presents the lap for combing in a very much more favorable condition for the action of the'combing-nee'dles than one that is carded. r

- The percentage of waste on the latest known combers can be controlled with the use ofmymachineto such a point that the total waste of, a well-combed yarn is very little, if any, greater thanthe waste made on the present carding systems, the combedyarn being vastly superior to the carded in strength, cleanliness, lustre, and general appearance. v

' The accompanying drawings are diagrammatic views in which v Fig. 1 represents a plan view showing a condenser and four pickers from which the cotton is supplied to the condenser;

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

A, represents a condenserof typical form having screen, rollers, fan andthe usual elements considered essential to such a device; and B, indicates a plurality of pickers, as, for instance, lickerins. These fit into common V-shaped channel C, so that the fibres are supplied to the screens from a plurality of pickers B instead of from a singleone as hertofore, with the advantageous results that have been fully explained in the preceding partof the specification.

Of course it is understood-that four, six, or eight, or in fact any number of these pickers might be used in connection with a single condenser with this arrangement.

, I claim:

1., The combination of a condenser and a picker arranged at'an angle to the longi- 1 tudinal axis through the condenser other than aright-angle and in communication with the condenser. i 1 2. The combination of a condenser, a V- shaped channel communicating therewith, and a plurality of pickers at the sides of the channel andcommunicating therewith.

35111 a machineof the character described, the combination of a cleaning; element, a feed channel for delivering cotton fibers to said cleaning element, andv a plurality of cleaning unit for directing cotton fibers thereto, and a plurality of pickers disposed approximately in the same horizontal plane on opposite sidesof said channel for delivering the cotton fibers thereto, said pickers having the axes thereof at acute angles to each other,

and at angles to the cleaning unit other than right angles.

5. The combination of a cotton condenser anda plurality of pickers having the axes hereof arranged atacute angles to the axis of the condenser and from which fibers are fed to the condenser.

6. The combination of a condenser, and pickers having the axes thereof arranged other than in parallel relation with the axis of the condenser.

7. The combination of a condenser, a channel leading thereto, and a plurality of pickers arranged on opposite sides of said channel and in communication therewith said pickers being approximately in the same horizontal plane as the channel.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

EUGENE C. GlVALTNEY. 

